The Sunset Limited is the oldest “named” continuously operating passenger train in the United States, having commenced operations in 1894 as a regularly scheduled Southern Pacific passenger service. The endpoints of the route have varied over the years with terminals as distant as San Francisco on the west and Orlando on the east. Throughout its history the Sunset Limited has passed this point along the old Houston and Texas Central Railroad right of way as it makes its way through Houston.
The Sunset Limited was transferred to Amtrak in the 1970’s and it currently (2015) operates between New Orleans and Los Angeles six days a week. In the early days it called at the original Southern Pacific Grand Central Station (constructed in 1884) and then later at the Art Deco version of Grand Central Station opened in 1934 and located just east of here. The last Grand Central Station was razed in 1959 to make way for the Houston Central Post Office facility and the passenger operations were moved to the station currently operated by Amtrak.
Houston’s first train depot, the Houston and Texas Central station was probably located between the present Amtrak station and the postal facility. The Houston Texas & Central Railroad was the first railroad to serve Houston, commencing operations in 1856. The tracks began just west of White Oak Bayou near the current grounds of the U of H Central Campus and eventually reached Cypress in northwest Harris County. The H&TC extended its system to Dallas and eventually the Red River and was later acquired by Southern Pacific. The tracks you see here along the old H&TC route are now part of the Union Pacific system and serve as the station loop from the railroad’s east-west main line.